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Saturday, October 20, 2012

A war veteran's secret revealed after his death

The family of a war hero only discovered the full weight of his bravery
after his death when his cremation left behind a huge pile of shrapnel.

Ronald Brown stepped on a land mine while on a mission in
France in August 1944. The blast peppered his left leg with red-hot
fragments and he was forced to crawl two miles to safety. But because of
medica

l conditions of the day it was
thought safer to leave shrapnel in his body. He survived the war but
only ever told his family the basic story and said the accident had left
him with a 'bad knee'. Mr Brown told loved ones he still had a 'bullet'
in his leg and asked his grandchildren not to sit on his knee because
of the pain it caused. But when he died last week aged 94 his family had
him cremated and were stunned when staff handed them back a big bag of
shrapnel.

The bag contained a whopping 6oz of bomb shrapnel
that he had been carrying around for 60 years. Daughter Jane Madden, 55,
of Exeter, Devon said her father told her there was a bullet in his
knee from the war, never mentioning the pile of fragments. She said: "I
don't think he ever realised all that was in his leg - it weighed about
six ounces. "He'd said there was a bullet in his leg but I was imagining
one romantic piece of metal. "But when we went to scatter his ashes we
asked whether the bullet had been found and they gave us this bag full
of metal. "It's just macabre really and amazing because he never used to
complain about the pain. It just shows how brave he was." Mr Brown, of
Exeter, joined the East Yorkshire Regiment at the age of 21 and was a
quartermaster when he suffered his injury.

He stepped on the
booby trap while on manoeuvres in August 1944, two months after D Day.
Following his death of a chest infection last week workers at Exeter and
Devon Crematorium carefully sifted through his ashes and found the
metal pieces. His granddaughter, Holly, 22, said her grandfather "never
spoke much about the war". She said: "When we were very young he used to
tell us not to sit on his knee because of the wound. "He would travel
overseas to Australia and America and he was always setting off scanners
as he walked through. "We always thought it was a bullet in the knee
but when the funeral directors gave us this bag of shrapnel they had
taken out we were shocked at how much there was. "We are all very proud
of him and what he did for all of us.

The bits of metal in him
just show how horrible the war was. "I suppose it's a bitter-sweet
memory for us because it symbolises everything he did and how he
suffered." After the war grandfather-of-five Ronald became a tax
inspector.

His wife Gwendoline died 24 years ago. Holly, one
of five grandchildren, said her grandfather kept a journal of his
wartime experiences. In the diary he claims he introduced the British
delicacy of egg and chips to people in France. But he also spoke of how
of the 900 original members of his regiment, only 29 came home from the
front. Jane said: "He had a good life and did a lot in his time. We all
so proud of him."